Talking Birds I’ve Met

The Parrot

In 1969 while on the Tune-Up Clinic teaching job, I made a call to the Chevrolet Dealer’s place in Taylorsville, Mississippi. The owner asked me to go back into the shop to see the mechanics. It was approaching closing time, and the mechanics were bringing cars inside to park for the night. One of the drivers drove in the door rather briskly and steered the car to one side into one of the bays. The car sounded as though it was really rushed in and brought to a screeching halt; I was puzzled. Each time a car was driven in, it was accompanied by the same sound. The mechanics were obviously enjoying my puzzled countenance.

When one of the mechanics came near, I asked him how did the cars movement not match the sound. Still enjoying my confused state, he at first pretended it all fit. Finally he pointed and said, “Check that cage over in the corner.” I looked into the corner where he pointed, and there perched a large parrot in a cage. Shortly, another car came pulling into the shop. That parrot made the noise of an engine revved up, tires biting hard into the concrete, and as the car turned that parrot made sounds exactly like careening tires. His final sound was of the car coming to a screeching halt

That was the best demonstration that parrots really and simply duplicate the sound they hear. That parrot did have the intellect to time the sound just right. Undoubtedly the mechanics had driven cars in with tires scratching on start-up, squalling in a turn, and brakes screeching to a panic-like stop to train the parrot. However they trained him, it was quite a show for the parrot’s sound ‘effects’ were perfect!

The Mina Bird

On one occasion I walked into the front showroom of the American Motors (Rambler) Dealer in Jackson, Mississippi to get permission to talk to their mechanics or to the service manager. In this case the service manager was called onto the showroom floor to talk. As I told him about the Tune-up course that was being offered locally, I could hear the beginning of the bargaining over a car trade going on behind me. As I spoke with the service manager the male country prospective buyer and the younger city car salesman became louder and louder. The offers of specific figures were being banded back and forth. Since I was preoccupied and not following the figures exactly, the trade sounded absolutely legitimate.

When I had finished talking with the service manager, I was curious to see this pair who would bargain so publicly and loudly. When I looked around to see there was absolutely no one in the unencumbered corner. Others standing with me were positively amused at my confused look. After letting me stand there completely baffled for a minute, someone suggested I look into the small cage that sat on a window sill. In that cage sat a small black bird. It was the first mina bird I ever saw. He was better at human voices than any bird I had ever heard. He was carrying both sides of the conversation. The figures didn’t make sense. But both the country man and the city boy were in perfect character.

This was written by Roy C. Watson at Jackson, Mississippi on November 24,1996.